Protein / target
Macrophage colony-stimulating factor 1 receptor
Protein at a glance
Biological role
Macrophage colony-stimulating factor receptor activity
Primary system
Immune system
Strongest disease association
leukoencephalopathy, diffuse hereditary, with spheroids 1
Therapeutic maturity
Clinically validated target
Druggability
Small molecule
Clinical development
7 approved · 14 in clinical development
Derived from structured UniProt, Open Targets and literature data on this page.
Protein profile
Canonical identity and biological annotation from UniProt.
Function
Tyrosine-protein kinase that acts as a cell-surface receptor for CSF1 and IL34 and plays an essential role in the regulation of survival, proliferation and differentiation of hematopoietic precursor cells, especially mononuclear phagocytes, such as macrophages and monocytes. Promotes the release of pro-inflammatory chemokines in response to IL34 and CSF1, and thereby plays an important role in innate immunity and in inflammatory processes. Plays an important role in the regulation of osteoclast proliferation and differentiation, the regulation of bone resorption, and is required for normal bone and tooth development. Required for normal male and female fertility, and for normal development of milk ducts and acinar structures in the mammary gland during pregnancy. Promotes reorganization of the actin cytoskeleton, regulates formation of membrane ruffles, cell adhesion and cell migration, and promotes cancer cell invasion. Activates several signaling pathways in response to ligand binding, including the ERK1/2 and the JNK pathway (PubMed:20504948, PubMed:30982609). Phosphorylates PIK3R1, PLCG2, GRB2, SLA2 and CBL. Activation of PLCG2 leads to the production of the cellular signaling molecules diacylglycerol and inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate, that then lead to the activation of protein kinase C family members, especially PRKCD. Phosphorylation of PIK3R1, the regulatory subunit of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase, leads to activation of the AKT1 signaling pathway. Activated CSF1R also mediates activation of the MAP kinases MAPK1/ERK2 and/or MAPK3/ERK1, and of the SRC family kinases SRC, FYN and YES1. Activated CSF1R transmits signals both via proteins that directly interact with phosphorylated tyrosine residues in its intracellular domain, or via adapter proteins, such as GRB2. Promotes activation of STAT family members STAT3, STAT5A and/or STAT5B. Promotes tyrosine phosphorylation of SHC1 and INPP5D/SHIP-1. Receptor signaling is down-regulated by protein phosphatases, such as INPP5D/SHIP-1, that dephosphorylate the receptor and its downstream effectors, and by rapid internalization of the activated receptor. In the central nervous system, may play a role in the development of microglia macrophages (PubMed:30982608)
Subcellular location
Domains and Gene Ontology detail (60)Hide
Domains & features
Gene Ontology
- Ccell surface
- CCSF1-CSF1R complex
- Cplasma membrane
- Creceptor complex
- FATP binding
- Fcytokine binding
- Fgrowth factor binding
- Fmacrophage colony-stimulating factor receptor activity
- Fprotein homodimerization activity
- Fprotein phosphatase binding
- Fprotein tyrosine kinase activity
- Paxon guidance
Biological roles
What this protein does, drawn together from its UniProt function, Gene Ontology terms and Reactome pathways.
View supporting evidenceHide supporting evidence
Kinase signalling
- ·Tyrosine-protein kinase that acts as a cell-surface receptor for CSF1 and IL34 and plays…
- ·protein tyrosine kinase activity
- ·peptidyl-tyrosine phosphorylation
- ·positive regulation of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/protein kinase B signal transduction
Immune signalling
- ·cytokine binding
- ·cellular response to cytokine stimulus
- ·cytokine-mediated signaling pathway
- ·inflammatory response
Cell adhesion
- ·Tyrosine-protein kinase that acts as a cell-surface receptor for CSF1 and IL34 and plays…
- ·cell-cell junction maintenance
Transcriptional regulation
- ·Transcriptional Regulation by VENTX
Apoptosis & cell death
- ·negative regulation of apoptotic process
View underlying pathways (3)Hide underlying pathways
Concepts derived from UniProt GO Reactome — each badge above shows which sources supported that role.
Interaction neighbourhood
Proteins with the strongest functional or physical association. Node size and line weight reflect STRING confidence; hover or select a partner to inspect one association.
Functional and physical associations from STRING v12.0. Only associations with this protein are drawn — partner-to-partner links are not part of this evidence.
Drugs targeting this protein
Whether each drug engages this protein directly or through a complex, and how many other targets are recorded for it. Direct binders with few recorded targets are listed first.
Macrophage colony stimulating factor receptor inhibitor
Appears in clinical studies involving tenosynovial giant cell tumor, diffuse type, neoplasm, Alzheimer disease, pigmented villonodular synovitis
Macrophage colony stimulating factor receptor inhibitor
Appears in clinical studies involving gastrointestinal stromal tumor, renal cell carcinoma, gastrointestinal stromal tumor, neuroendocrine neoplasm
ChEMBL mechanism, action type and target identity. Open Targets clinical status and indications.
Translational evidence
Why this target matters therapeutically — disease associations, drugs in development, tractability and safety, from Open Targets.
Strongest genetic associations
Human genetic evidence — the most direct causal link between this target and a disease.
Highest-confidence therapeutic associations
Diseases where a drug acting on this target has already reached clinical development.
Highest overall evidence
Remaining associations by Open Targets' aggregated evidence score.
Show all associationsHide all associations
Open Targets ranks 2,483 associations for this target and we store the top 10 by aggregated score. The long tail is largely literature co-mention and RNA-expression evidence, not evidence that this target drives those diseases.
Known drugs · 21 total
colorectal cancer · colorectal adenocarcinoma · von Hippel-Lindau disease
chronic graft versus host disease · graft versus host disease · COVID-19
melanoma · prostate cancer · breast cancer
colorectal cancer · exocrine pancreatic carcinoma · non-small cell lung carcinoma
Hodgkins lymphoma · rheumatoid arthritis · acute myeloid leukemia
soft tissue sarcoma · renal cell carcinoma · sarcoma
malignant pancreatic neoplasm
pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma · cancer
tenosynovial giant cell tumor
acute myeloid leukemia by FAB classification · neoplasm · childhood leukemia
Tractability
Safety liabilities
Clinical trials
Trials of drugs that target this protein — reached indirectly through those drugs, so a trial listed here studies the drug, not the protein.
Show remaining trials (24)Hide
ClinicalTrials.gov via the drug-target graph.
Forefront confidence
Our own weighting of the evidence behind each disease association. Human genetics and clinical evidence count for most; literature co-mention counts for little, because two entities sharing an abstract is not evidence that one drives the other.
This ranking differs from Open Targets' own: re-weighting moves genetically-evidenced diseases above more heavily co-mentioned ones. The evidence agreement range shows how closely the independent evidence families agree — it is not a statistical confidence interval, and nothing here is fitted to outcome data. Derived from Open Targets evidence types under Forefront weighting; the underlying per-type scores are shown above so the calculation can be checked.
What's happening now
Recent activity around this target, drawn from one canonical event stream. Every item is reached through 2 drugs that target this protein, so each event is news about that drug rather than about the protein directly.
- New publicationBrain-wide microglia replacement using a nonconditioning strategy ameliorates pathology in mouse models of neurological disorders.
- New publicationMachine-learning and mechanistic modeling of metastatic breast cancer after neoadjuvant treatment.
- New publicationGenomic profiling in GIST: Implications in clinical outcome and future challenges.
- New publicationDistinguishing the effects of systemic CSF1R inhibition by PLX3397 on microglia and peripheral immune cells.
- New publicationNivolumab plus Cabozantinib versus Sunitinib for Advanced Renal-Cell Carcinoma.
- Regulatory approval
Approval: Sunitinib Accord (EMA)
- New publicationMicroglial activation contributes to cognitive impairments in rotenone-induced mouse Parkinson's disease model.
- New publicationLiver transarterial chemoembolization and sunitinib for unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma: Results of the PRODIGE 16 study.
- New publicationUpdated efficacy results from the JAVELIN Renal 101 trial: first-line avelumab plus axitinib versus sunitinib in patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma.
- New publicationMicroglia drive APOE-dependent neurodegeneration in a tauopathy mouse model.
- New publicationNivolumab plus ipilimumab versus sunitinib in first-line treatment for advanced renal cell carcinoma: extended follow-up of efficacy and safety results from a randomised, controlled, phase 3 trial.
- New publicationPembrolizumab plus Axitinib versus Sunitinib for Advanced Renal-Cell Carcinoma.
Objective event titles are shown unmodified; the event kind and significance line are derived from structured fields. Forefront AttentionEvent stream aggregating Europe PMC Regulatory filings ClinicalTrials.gov.